Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Is the Taoiseach aware that on 14 September in the Assembly, the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Michael McGimpsey, advised the Stormont Assembly that he had agreed with the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, not to publish or bring forward the feasibility report on North-South co-operation on the issue of health? This issue has been raised at a number of committees here, including the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and is a cause of serious concern. Is the Taoiseach aware that the feasibility report that has been withheld contains recommendations for ever-deepening and further co-operation in health care delivery North-South that would make a critical difference for citizens on the island of Ireland in terms of accessing procedures that are not currently on offer on the island? Citizens North and South must leave this island to access particular procedures, whereas if the mass of the population on the island was taken into account, it would allow for those procedures and the particular expertise to locate on the island of Ireland, at whatever location.

There is also an issue with regard to particular areas, such as transplants, which are of a specialist nature. Currently, people are obliged to leave this island for treatment. The report contains many important and welcome recommendations. Would the Taoiseach not accept that co-operation in health delivery systems is hugely important and would benefit all on the island of Ireland? Will he join me in asking for the publication of this report and for its reintroduction as a document for live consideration North and South?

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